Health Indicator Report of Deaths due to Motor Vehicle-Related Injuries

Why Is This Important?

Motor vehicle crashes are the 2nd leading cause of unintentional injury death in the United States and in New Jersey. Each year there are more than 270,000 motor vehicle crashes in New Jersey and nearly one-quarter of crashes result in injuries.[https://www.state.nj.us/transportation/refdata/accident/crash_statistics.shtm ^1^]

Denominator

Health Objectives and Targets

U.S. Target: 12.4 deaths per 100,000 population (age-adjusted)State Target: 7.1 deaths per 100,000 population (age-adjusted)

Other Objectives

'''Revised Healthy New Jersey 2020 Objective IVP-5''': Reduce the age-adjusted mortality rate due to motor vehicle-related injuries per 100,000 standard population to 5.8 among the total population, 5.4 among Whites, 7.7 among Blacks, 5.9 among Hispanics, and 3.2 among Asians.
'''Original Healthy New Jersey 2020 Objective IVP-5''': Reduce the age-adjusted mortality rate due to motor vehicle-related injuries per 100,000 standard population to 7.1 among the total population, 6.8 among Whites, 9.6 among Blacks, 8.2 among Hispanics, and 3.6 among Asians.

Current Outlook

How Are We Doing?

Death rates due to motor vehicle-related injuries are on a slow downward trend in New Jersey and the United States dating back to the early 1990's. Rates do not vary much by race/ethnicity but they are very different for males and females with the rate among males 2.5 times that of females. Seventy percent of motor vehicle-related fatalities are among males. County rates vary from 4.0 per 100,000 population (age-adjusted) in Bergen County to 16.7 in Cumberland (2014-2016 data).

How Do We Compare With the U.S.?

The New Jersey motor vehicle-related mortality rate is about half that of the nation as a whole.

Health Improvement Resources

What Is Being Done?

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's "[http://www.nhtsa.gov/CIOT Click It or Ticket]" campaign is the most successful seat belt enforcement campaign ever, helping achieve an all-time high national seat belt usage rate of 90 percent.[https://www.nhtsa.gov/risky-driving/seat-belts ^2^]
New Jersey's laws to protect drivers, passengers, bicyclists, and pedestrians are among the most stringent in the nation.
All states require child safety seats for infants and children fitting specific criteria and nearly all states require booster seats or other appropriate devices for children who have outgrown their child safety seats but are still too small to use an adult seat belt safely. However, New Jersey is one of only 5 states that require the use of [http://www.ghsa.org/html/stateinfo/laws/childsafety_laws.html seat belts on school buses].
New Jersey is one of only 8 states (plus D.C.) that does not allow [http://www.ghsa.org/html/stateinfo/laws/license_laws.html full driving privileges until the age of 18] and it is the only state that requires drivers younger than 21 without full-privilege licenses to display a decal on their vehicle identifying them as new drivers.
All states except Utah define [http://www.ghsa.org/html/stateinfo/laws/impaired_laws.html drunk driving] as operating a vehicle with a blood alcohol concentration (BAC) of .08 or higher. New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Rhode Island have increased penalties if the driver's BAC is 0.10 or higher. Increased penalties (if any) in other states are not levied unless the driver's BAC is 0.15 or higher.
New Jersey is one of 16 states (plus D.C.) with primary hand-held [http://www.ghsa.org/html/stateinfo/laws/cellphone_laws.html cell phone bans], was one of the first states to enact universal [http://www.ghsa.org/html/stateinfo/laws/helmet_laws.html motorcycle helmet laws], and is one of 5 states that require all bicyclists under 17 years of age to wear a [http://www.ghsa.org/state-laws/issues/Bicyclists-and-Pedestrians bike helmet].

The information provided above is from the Department of Health's NJSHAD web site (https://nj.gov/health/shad). The information published
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